The Connecticut Association of Urban Superintendents is planning to host a legislative breakfast next month to help promote its goal to preserve state education aid and spend unfunded mandates. According to an article by The Hartford Courant, Connecticut’s education board approved potential budget cuts earlier this month that could cut Education Cost Sharing aid to school districts by $230 million.

Municipal leaders have met with legislative delegations to press for protection of ECS funding and the urban superintendents group plans to voice that message as well. Even well-off communities are facing budget cuts because costs for staff, insurance and special education are increasing while state aid is decreasing. This is a turn-around from previous months when education jobs increased.

Such communities as Avon and Bristol are facing these issues, as neither receive a large amount of state funding to begin with. While community members are asking schools to keep spending at the same rate as last year, that couldn’t be done without a 6 percent financial increase.

“We’re a professional/management-oriented community where people have lost money in investments, where their jobs are on the line,” Avon Superintendent Richard Kisiel said in the article.

The current economy has taken a toll on all of Connecticut’s industries, not just education. The state had a total non-farm employment of 1,693,400 workers during November 2008, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,698,500 workers during October and a .6 percent decrease from last year.

Connecticut had an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent during November, up from 6.5 percent during October but lower than the national unemployment rate of 6.7 percent.

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